Robert Steinhäuser
Robert Steinhäuser (January 22, 1983 - April 26, 2002) was a 19-year old German man who committed a mass shooting at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium secondary school in Erfut, Germany on April 26, 2002. He shot and killed 16 people: 13 staff members, two students, and one police officer, before committing suicide. Steinhäuser's motive for committing the is unknown, but it is theorized that it may have been out of vengeance, as it was his former school and he had been previously expelled. He exclusively targeted teachers and administrators during the shooting and mostly avoided students, though two students ended up being killed. According to friends and family, Steinhäuser played violent video games, was a member of a gun club and collected firearms obsessively, and was allegedly a devil-worshiper. Background On the day of the shooting, before leaving his residence at his usual time, Steinhäuser armed himself with a 9mm Glock 17 and a Mossberg 590 Mariner 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, which was unusable due to an earlier handling error. Steinhäuser probably entered the school unmasked at 10:45, carrying his weapons and ammunition in his sports bag or backpack at the time. He went into the men's bathroom on the ground floor and changed some of his clothes there, including a black face mask over his head. The shooting started at approximately 10:58 am. From the toilet, Steinhäuser went to the secretariat. There he shot the deputy school principal and the secretary. In the next room was the headmistress, this room was not entered by Steinhäuser despite the door being unlocked at this point. When the headmistress went to check the noise Steinhäuser had already left the room. Upon discovering the bodies, she locked herself in her office and alerted the emergency services. After leaving the secretariat, Steinhäuser went up the stairs to the first floor. Still on the stairs, he shot several times in the back of a teacher who was about to open a preparation room. Arrived on the first floor, he moved purposefully into the room 105 and shot there before the eyes of the students the teacher present. Alerted by the shots, the teacher from the opposite classroom wanted to see what had happened and entered the corridor, where he was killed by several shots fired by Steinhäuser. The perpetrator then made his way to the second floor. There he first entered the empty room 206, then the room 205, in which there were only a few students, but did not shoot there. Now he crossed the hallway to the north stairwell and fired five times at a teacher. Then he entered the room 211 and gave - again in front of the students - five shots on the present teacher. His next path led Steinhäuser in the opposite classroom 208, but he didn't shoot on the local teacher who resembled the surrounding students in size and youthful figure. Steinhäuser now made his way to the third floor, where he shot another teacher in room 307. Here he changed the magazine of his weapon for the first time. Back in the corridor he met a teacher who wanted to inquire after the noise. However, she was ignored by Steinhäuser. He then shot a teaching trainee in room 304/310 and another teacher in the hallway. Shortly thereafter, Steinhäuser was identified for the first time, because a student recognized him despite the face mask. On the way to the south staircase he shot another teacher. Steinhäuser returned to the southern second floor. The situation was different now, most students already knew about the events, many had already fled. The perpetrator met here now for the first time locked and barricaded classrooms. Nevertheless, Steinhäuser also found victims here; He fired several times at a fleeing teacher. She fell forward through the half-opened door, Steinhäuser walked over her and from the other direction gave yet another shot at the lying woman. The perpetrator changed the magazine now for the second time. In room 208, the teen-looking teacher, who had previously been spared from Steinhäuser, locked herself up with her class. Steinhauser tried to enter the room; after this failed, he fired eight times through the closed door in rapid succession. Here, two students were fatally hit. Robert Steinhäuser now went to the first floor, where he fired a shot through the door to a toilet. The shot stuck in the backpack of a student standing in front of a sink. Steinhäuser now went to the schoolyard. There he shot a teacher who had taken care of the evacuation of the students and had repeatedly driven them to leave the school grounds. Steinhäuser changed his magazine for the third and last time. At this time, five minutes after the first shot, the first police car arrived at the school. Robert Steinhäuser opened the fire on the police. One of the policemen shot back once. Nobody was hit in this shootout. Thereupon Steinhäuser went very quickly to the first floor and shot a policeman through a window. In front of room 111 Steinhäuser met the teacher Rainer Heise. The perpetrator had already removed his face mask, so the teacher could recognize him. The teacher was aware of the extent of the events of the last few minutes. He was also aware that he had the gunman right in front of him. He said to Steinhäuser, "You can shoot me now," and looked him in the eyes. However, Steinhäuser lowered his weapon and said: "Mr Heise, that's enough for today." According to Heise, he asked Steinhäuser to come for a conversation in the next room (room 111, material room art), Steinhäuser followed the request, went to the open door and was then pushed into the room by Heise to be locked up in it. Shortly thereafter, Steinhäuser shot himself, and his body was found by police a few hours later. All in all, the killing spree from the first shot to Steinhäuser's suicide took no more than 20 minutes. One and a half hours later, Steinhäuser's body was found by a special police detachment (SEK) in room 111. The gunman killed 16 people in the massacre—12 teachers, two students, one secretary, and one policeman. 71 rounds were fired throughout the whole series of shootings. Category:Modern Villains Category:Deceased Category:Mass Shooters Category:Mass Murderers Category:Suicidal Category:Vengeful Category:Homicidal Category:School Shooters Category:Tragic Category:Wrathful Category:Emotionless Villains Category:Brutes Category:Liars Category:Sadists Category:Barbarians Category:Satanism Category:Destroyer of Innocence Category:Terrorists Category:Psychopath Category:Misanthropes Category:Obsessed Category:Male Category:Mentally Ill Category:One-Man Army Category:European Villains Category:From Nobody to Nightmare